1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a sound system for a video game and, more particularly, to the construction of a sound processor that permits use of sound location information provided in the game software to place the sound image at a desired location.
2. Description of the Background
Interactive video games have now become so well known that everyone has either played such games or has seen others play them. These interactive games provide the player with some sort of control, such as a joy stick and/or actuating buttons to control the video display and progress of the game. Audio program material is also associated with the video display but to date the audio program material has been much less sophisticated than the corresponding video program material. More recently, however, some video game sound programs have been provided in stereo.
Typically, the sound program material is replayed over the speaker contained in the television receiver or monitor. In arcade video games speakers are generally contained within the module housing the arcade game. Some video game systems can also be connected directly to the amplifier and speakers of the home stereo system.
Even though some improvement has been made in the audio program material for video games, such program material is still far below the level of sophistication of the video program material and, thus, generally the games have not been improved as much as they might have. There have also been attempts to use surround sound equipment with video games, however, such surround sound equipment is very expensive and far outweighs the cost of the actual video game itself and, thus, has had little or no popularity.